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The first time I got email was in seventh grade. I was so excited. I spent hours debating what my first email address would be. If I was going to have an email address for the rest of my life, I had to make it good.
After much thought, I came up with the perfect name… Drishdog@hotmail.com (Obviously, I was a very cool 7th grader.)
Then 9th grade rolled around. And I realized that my email address just wasn’t cutting it… I mean, I was in high school now. And “drishdog” was just soooo not cool. But do you know what was cool? ”Drishdogg” was cool. Because having two “G’s” makes you seem like a rebel. Or something.
Then I got to college… and I learned that virtually every career advice book says to get an email address that uses your name (and doesn’t have the word “dogg” in it.) So I finally grew up. I ditched the old email addresses and went with what’s simple: andy [dot] drish [at] gmail.com
Ever since then, almost every login name I’ve created is some version of andy.drish.
So can someone please explain to me why so many people change their Twitter handle to something other than their name? It’s so annoying. As I talk with people, I begin to know them by their Twitter handle. And then we’ll meet each other in person at a Tweetup or something and I’ll completely blank on their first name. Which makes me feel like a jerk.
I understand that your name might be taken. Or you don’t want to reveal your entire identity. Or you’re representing your company. But c’mon… Can’t you throw your first name in there somewhere?
Or at least explain your logic to me.
I use the title of my blog as my twitter handle since it's there for the purposes of ... promoting my blog.
I hated that ryanstephens.com was taken as was ryanstephens@gmail.com so I had to throw marketing into both (making them both a bit long), but I do have my name for Twitter. Our office is working on a best practices for Twitter, and one of the things is definitely to, "Use your name as your Twitter handle."
And while I see Kathleen's intent, I just don't agree with it. If you're there just to promote your blog I think you're missing the point of Twitter and building an authentic community around your blog. It's just like a brand. I don't want to follow Comcast, I want to follow Frank Eliason, a person.
Connecting with the person on a personal level makes me want to connect with the brand, not the other way around.
R
I absolutely agree. It's so much easier to converse with people on twitter when they use a name-like handle. If your first+last name is taken, try inserting your middle initial. My twitter handle is my name with a portion of my last name.
I originally joined Twitter just to connect with friends. I didn't really intend it to be very business-related but I began to connect with others. Now that I've built up my network there, I hardly want to change my username because that's how I've become known. But I do have my full name listed in my Profile. I also have a follower who started out promoting his company but now he's branded himself as that name so he uses that name now in most all of his profiles because people associate him with it. So sometimes it's sort of an after thought. It's good to let people know who are just getting on board these sorts of things.
Twitter is a personal communications medium co-opted for business.
Whether you want to use freakyFridayJoe or joeBloggs as your username it's up to you. I still have my first email. I still use it. Not for business purposes, but all my friends contact me there.
There is no right way or wrong way. There is not etiquette book that people follow. The only 'rule' is that an employer doesn't want to see freakyFridayJoe@aim.com as an email. They want something professional. What you do on your own time is your business :-)
@Kathleen - I understand what you're saying about promoting your blog. But what happens if you decide to ditch your blog and start something new?
@Ryan - I really like your point about connecting with a person first and a brand second. I think that's espeically important on a medium like Twitter
@Anna - A lot of my friends have had to do that. Good advice.
@Rosie - It's really a matter of branding yourself (or your company). The only problem is that companies are temporary. You might have a busines or a blog that you're promoting today... but if that has the slightest possibility of changing, you could potentially lose the community you've built.
@Dr Pepper - You're right that it is 100% personal preference. But the thing with Twitter is that you're constantly making virtual first impressions with strangers... I guess it depends on what you want that first impression to be.
My situation and intent coincides with Kathleen and Rosie. I started using Twitter out of curiosity and as a tool to converse with people I had met through my blog, as a means of connecting and promoting. Having used it for awhile now, my purpose has since expanded on a more personal and professional level to where it's no longer about building readership, but relationships.
Like Rosie, I feel as if I've formed these connections around this username, and thus is it recognizeable within that network (I assume). My full name and information is listed in my bio as well, so in that way I think it still can remain personal.
I completely see the viewpoint that people want to converse with an actual name and not a brand, and if my name weren't too long, I probably would have considered using that instead. ;)
But as it is, I think those who use twitter as a means to connect can still maintain that connection on a personal level, no matter what their handle is. I know you as andydrish, but I could have as easily gotten to know you as drishdogg (which is awesome in its own right). I think it all depends on the user's purpose and performance. Just my $.02
@Andy - honestly? I probably would stop using twitter.
Most people's names are too long - my full name would be far too long and even if Rebecca weren't taken, I think that's too long. I like short handles on Twitter. Interestingly enough, I didn't even check if Rebecca was actually taken until now. I always knew it would be modite.
And while my whole post today is about the importance of relationships, and I really like Ryan Stephen's, I kind of snickered at his comment. I am on Twitter to build relationships, but for the purpose of promoting my blog. Part of that is community, but part is promotion. There's nothing wrong with that. Especially when you consider that my blog is one of the most important things to me.
With a name as common as Meg Roberts, unless I'm an extremely early adopter, most User IDs with my name (or even a variation of it) are already taken. This provides a dilemma for me because I have to use different names on a variety of platforms. Twitter? megmroberts Gmail? megmarie412 Blog? megroberts.wordpress.com In this situation, I think it would have been easier for me to come up with a name like Rebecca did - that way I could be more consistent with my personal brand on all my social networks.
@susan - People definitely can still connect on a personal level, no matter the twitter handle. It just takes more time to connect the handle with the person. (For me, at least.)
@kathleen - I'm not sure if you feel the same, but if I were to quit Twitter, I'd probably have to get on some sort of a 12 step program.
@Rebecca - I didn't think about name length. Good point. And I think that, deep down, everyone on Twitter is partially there for self promotion. :)
@Meg - Consistency is definitely important... If you've got a moment, check out http://www.usernamecheck.com/ It tells you all of the services where your name is already taken.
Thanks for the discussion everyone.
@Andy no, i Don't feel that way about twitter... I DO feel that way about facebook though!
Instead of focusing on what I had done professionally in the past, I focused on what I wanted to do in the future. More...
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